F^^^ 
,/^^ 



" "^ SPEECH 

. M48 
Copy 1 



OF 



HON. JAMES MEACEAM, OF VERMONT, 



ON 



KANSAS AFFAIRS 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 30, 1 3 o G. 






WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1856. 






f-> 



J 



KANSAS APrAIRS. 



The House being in the Committee of tiie 
Whole on the ctate of the UnioK — 

Mr. MEACHAM said: 

Mr. Chairman: In rising to address ike com- 
mittee at this time I cannot fail to be reminded 
that you* and I have been here together before; 
nor can I fail to recall the scenes through which 
w^e passed six years siBce. Then, as now, there 
was an agitation in regard to the Territories of 
this Union; and I believe there was a great deal 
more animosity on the subject than there is even 
now. The Territories were different, but the 
same principles lay at the bottom of the agitation 
then and now. Time has passed on, and dealt 
far more kindly with you than with me; and 
upon your healthy and joyous countenance there 
are far fewer marks of the plow-share, and far 
fewer furrows upon your brow than upon mine. 
I cannot but be reminded that there are now only 
about fifteen men here who were together then. I 
have said, sir, that the principles which we were 
agitating at that time — although in relation to dif- 
ferent Territories — were the same as those we are 
agitating now. And you will recognize the fact 
that probably never, in the history of the world, 
has there been agitation in relation to territories 
so rich, so large, so fertile, and in their anticipated 
destinies so prosperous, as those then and now 
under consideration. 

We often, in reading a book, find out on a re- 
perusal a good many things of importance wliich 
we had passed over in the first reading. It was 
so in reading the last presidential message. There 



^Hi. Cobb, of Georgia, in the chair. 



are eighteen columns of the Congressional Globe 
occupied in it. The President has discussed in 
ten columns our condition as to war and peace, 
th« Army, and the Navy, and the revenue, and 
the tariff, and the pviblic lands, and then he haa 
gone abroad and discussed our foreign relations. 
And after he had gone over the whole American 
continent, and gone abroad over the rest of tiie 
world, he comes home and devotes eight columns 
out of eighteen in reference to the controversy 
between the North and South. Eight mortal col- 
umns of the Congressional Globe are devoted to 
the agitation of slavery; and throughout the whole 
he lays the entire blame upon the North, and ex- 
cuses in eV'Cry respect, and in every possible way, 
the South! 

Now remember by whom that is done. It is 
done by a President whose nomination was made 
at Baltimore, where the party was pledged that 
the man coming into power should not agitate 
the subject of slavery, and should not promote 
sectional agitation. The President himself came 
out in a speech, and promised the same thing. He 
came out afterwards in his inaugural, and repeated 
the pledge over and over again. It was repeated 
again through the votes which l^e got in this 
House. After all that, there stands the eight col- 
umns of agitation. And I venture to say — and 
I say candidly and honestly — that, of all the 
abolition documents that ever I read, 1 never 
read eight columns better calculated to promote 
sectional agitation than these eight columns of 
the President's message. No such thing can be 
found in any other official document of the United 
States. 



One of the points which the President makes 
is the aggression inflicted on the South by the 
North. I will read an extract from the message: 

" It is impossible lo present this subject as trntli and the 
occasion reqiiirf, without noticing tlipri'iterated but ground- 
loss allegation, that the South has persistently asserted 
claims and obtained advantages in the practical adminis- 
tration of the General Government, to the prejudice of the 
North, and in which the latter has acquiesced. That is, 
the States, which either promote or tolerate attacks on the 
riglits of pirsonsand of property in other States, to disguise 
their own injustice, pretend or imagine, and constantly 
aver, that they, \vhosc constitutional rights are thus sys- 
tematically assailed, are themselves the aggressors. At the 
present time, this imputed aggression, resting, as it docs, 
only in the vague, declamatory charges of political agitators, 
resolves itself into misapprehension, or misinterpretation, 
of the principles and facts of tlie political organization of 
the new Territories of the United States." 

[Mr. Meacham then proceeded to exhibit a 
colored map of Texas, to show what portion of 
the Territory was given to freedom, and what to 
slavery.] 

Wiiere i.s now (said he) the territory which was 
then declared free ? It has been given over to New 
Mexico and Kansas, with the permission to fill it 
•with slavery if they please. There [indicating it 
on the map] is the southern boundary of Kansas, 
and that has gone into Kansas Avith the permis- 
sion to fill that with slaves. The only portion of 
free territory which remains of all that we were 
to have is just that little red patch. It is a degree 
and a half of longitude in length, and half a degree 
oflatitude in width. That is what remains. There 
is the promise made to us, and there is the man- 
ner in which it is kept. That little patch of ter- 
ritory is all we have to show that the free States 
were ever recognized in the distribution. There 
was once, as you will remember from reading 
Prescott, a territory in the mountains of Mexico. 
It was a republic; and while the hosts of Spain 
were pouring over all the rest of Mexico, that 
little republic maintained its independence for fifty 
years, and so perfectly determined were ihey to 
maintain their independence, that they were fifty 
years without ever tasting salt, because they could 
not get down to the ocean. I trust the time will 
come when in these settled Territories there will 
be a body of •epublicans who will have the same 
spirit and determination to maintain their free- 
cm, come what will. I have shown you, then, 
what has become of 'that portion of territory. 
There [indicating it] is what the slave States 
have got, and there is what the free States have 
got. 

The President has made the establishment of 
the Missouri compromise line one of the great 
aggressions of the North against the South. That 



line has been broken up — we think, unjustly 
broken up. It was made by our fathers and rati- 
fied by their children. But there was something 
promised in the place of that line. What was it ? 
It was that the people in Kansas should liave the 
right to govern themselves. And the great strug- 
gle is, at the present hour, not whether we will 
restore the Missouri compromise, but whether 
they will keep the promise made, when that com- 
promise was abrogated, to the ear, and break it 
to the hope.' 

A year before the Nebraska and Kansas bill 
was jDassed , another bill was passed by this House 
for the organization of this Territory, and I be- 
lieve it gave joy throughout the whole land, 
contained no provision in it for the abrogation of 
any compromise. It stood before us as free ter- 
ritory, and emigrants said, "We will go to that 
Territory, the inheritance of our fathers, and we 
will keep it free. We will go there fearless of 
any encroachment upon the part of slavery; we 
will go there and enjoy a free State. " But another 
year came, and another bill came along with it. 
That bill promised that every man who went 
there should go there upon an equality with every 
other man, so far as political rights were con- 
cerned. 

Now, sir, all the new territories settled by the 
Old World were settled in masses; men did not 
go out singly from their homes. It was so in the 
settlements made in this country. Such was the 
fact in the settlement of Virginia, of South Caro- 
lina, of Connecticut, of Massachusetts. 

But, sir, we hear a great deal of complaint in 
these days about emigration aid societies. Now, 
suppose that here is a company of men coming 
from London to Plymouth. Suppose a hundred 
men were to come, and you see a man rushing to 
the king, breathless, exclaiming, " Why, men 
are emigrating here in masses !" " Well, what 
of it.'" "Why, they have no right to come here 
in masses. Let every man row his own boat. 
Let them coime singly, and I will not object, but 
here they come in whole ship-loads." 

Well, sir, there was an emigrant aid society 
for the encouragement of the Plymouth colony. 
Every man who came to Plymouth Rock mort- 
gaged his services for ten years, in order that he 
naight have his expenses paid, and an allowance 
for his support after he arrived. 

And the same thing might be said in respect to 
the emigration from Greece lo Asia Minor, Italy, 
and Sicily. Those who emigrated were generally 
persons composing a minority who, having been 
defeated in their political struggles, did* not care 



to be taunted with it, and hence they preferred 
going to a foreign country. But they were in a 
different situation in some respects. They went 
out without law — independent of kiw — with the 
right to make their own laws. But there was 
another thing in regard to these emigrant aid 
societies; those whostayed athome were bound to 
pay the expenses of those who went abroad. This 
was just as much a settled law in that community 
as any other law that ever existed there. 

There was another emigration which, in one 
respect, and only one, bears a resemblance to those 
who are now going West. There M-as a body of 
rnen who went out from a certain country for the 
purpose of going to the land of freedom. That 
was their professed mission. Well, sir, they 
obtained permission to go; and on a certain night, 
by the help of emigrant aid societies, they started. 
On that night there were three millions of people 
started out from Egypt. There were among them 
six hundred thousand men capable of bearing 
arms. But Pliaroah said that was too much. 
These men were emigrating in too large masses, 
and he started out after them — not to control 
them at the ballot-box, but to hinder them from 
going. But he did not hinder them. They started 
out for the promised land, not one fifth part of the 
distance to Kansas, but they did not go directly 
there. In the course of two years, however, they 
came to a river, which only separated them from 
the promised land. They were not, however, fit 
to enter, and they turned back into the wilder- 
ness; and, after thirty-eight years, these six 
hundred thousand men, capable of bearing arms, 
again arrived at the promised land; they crossed 
the river, and freedom was theirs. They were 
then trained men — every man trained to his place. 

There is a body of men — not going out of 
Egypt — but from the northei-n country to the 
West. They are not going there armed. They 
are in practice unacquainted with arms; but they 
will have their training if it be necessary. They 
will break the depths of the forest gloom as they 
tramp their way through the wilderness, and the 
wilderness will shake beneath their tread, because 
it will be the tread of a host of freemen. But 
tliere will be no goii>g back. 

Well, we are told that northern men have 
always backed out, and that they will back out 
on this occasion. No, sir; we have got where we 
cannot back out. Why taunt the men who hold 
for the right of the admission of Kansas into the 
Union as men lacking courage and high patriotic 
Bpirit? They are descendants of good men always 
eai-nest in the cause of freedom. Heman Allen, 



as one of the Representatives of Vermont, showed 
himself a strong assailant of slavery at the time 
of the admission of Arkansas, and it was thought 
fit to sneer at him as buried " way off up in the 
mountains." Go and stand by the grave of 
Heman Allen. There will be presented one of 
the finest scenes ever presented to the eye of man. 
Could you lengthen your vision, and clip the top 
of the mountain forests, you might see Arnold on 
his perilous way to Quebec. You may see him 
wounded. You may see where Wolfe fell, and 
where Montgomery died. You may track that 
army when pestilence hung over it, and death was 
dripping from her wings. You will see Burgoyne 
starting his career on the lake, and making his 
way down to Saratoga. Then you will see him 
returning, and the splendid presents for the In- 
dians, brought by him, disposed of in a manner, 
andfor a purpose far different from that for which 
they were intended, just as the marble brought 
into Greece to rear a monument at Marathon. ■ 
That monument went up on the same spot, but 
it went up to show the victory of the Greeks and 
the vanquishment of the Persians. From that 
spot you may see the battle of Bennington. You 
may see that fleet going down Lake George in 
the French war, with its music, and its banners 
flying. You may see the battle of Plattsburg. 
You may see the spot where Scott won his glory. 
There is the place where sleeps the freeman 
Allen. 

There is another thing on wl)ich I wish ^o 
speak. I refer to the emigrant aid societies. 
The largest emigrant aid society ever knowi* is 
the Government of the United States. It began its 
career to stimulate immigration more than fifty 
yearsago. How.' In protecting squatters, making 
preemption laws, homestead bills, and giving do- 
nations of the public lands to actual settlers. Just 
to make the point clear, let me refer to what has 
been done in reference to the Territory of Oregon. 
In 1852 we passed a law giving to every actual 
settler in that Territory, if single, three hundred 
and twenty, or, if married, six hundred and forty 
acres. It was to continue for two years; but 
when that time had expired, it was extended two 
years more. It expired in December last by 
its own limitation. Look at it. Six hundred 
and forty acres to every man who would go to 
Oregon ! Two hundred tJiousand acres were 
pledged as a gift to actual settlers, if they would 
go there. President Pierce takes the executive 
chair. I suppose he knows what has been done; 
yet, notwithstanding this, when a little emigrant 
aid society is seen in Massachusetts, the Pres- 



ident, and all in authority, are in the utmost con- 
sternation. They are raising signals of distress, 
and sending proclamations all over the land. 
What for? What is the mutter? They want to 
stop emigration from Massachusetts to the West 
— an emigration which has been stimulated for 
the past half century by acts of Congress. Look 
at the consistency of conduct there is here. But 
they do not care a rush for these aid societies. 
A bird feigns to be wounded, and lures the hunter 
far from the spot where she was first seen. She 
goes limping, fluttering, and screaming, to attract 
attention. Why does she do so? She wants to 
prevent her nest and its eggs from being touched. 
That is just the case here. They do not care a 
fig about these emigrant aid societies. It is only 
a blind. 

• I do not intend to occupy my full time now, 
for I hope, if anything is brought back in the 
nature of evidence by the commission we have 
sent to that Territory, I may be able to take part 
in the discussion then. Indeed, until that mas- 
terly report of the minority in the Senate, I could 
hardly see a single fact upon which you could 
rest with any degree of reliance whatever. But, 
I ask you, how were northern emigrants treated ? 
On the 30th of May, 1854, we passed that lawfor 
the organization of Nebraska and Kansas. Just 
twenty-nine days after that, the men of Missouri 
formed an association to drive out from that Ter- 
ritory, to hurl out of it by force, every man who 
came into it by the assistance of northern emi- 
grant aid societies. The plan must have been laid, 
and the knowledge in regard to that law must 
have been conveyed to that Territory, before the 
law was passed. Now, that was the welcome 
which awaited freemen when they went into that 
Territory? I know it is said that "If you do not 
like it, stay at home; we will just make that Ter- 
ritory so hot that you cannot stay there: we will 
go and occupy it ourselves, and make it a slave 
Territory." But how were they treated? Did they 
receive at the hands of those who had gone there 
from the State of Missouri anything like hospi- 
tality, anything like courtesy, anything like jus- 
tice, when they went to that strange land? Instead 
of that, when the first election came off they 
were driven from the ballot-boxes by force, and 
those who usur^Dcd their places had things their 
ow^n way. 

Now, I maintain that the Kansas people are to 
blame in some measure. Thuy were altogether 
too modest. Tliey had a way, up in Vermont, 
of dealing with intruders from abroad, which is 
worthy of imitation in spirit, if not in form. 



New York claimed a portion of that State as her 
own, nearly to the mountains. They sent there 
officers to execute the process of that Slate. The 
Vermonters told them they could not have such 
matters going on in their State, and that they 
must stop. They did not do it. They caught 
one of the officers and tied him to a tree, and laid 
upon him what they called a " beech seal," which 
grows in the woods in the shape of what boys 
call switches. They gave him a tliorough dress- 
ing; told him to go home, and if he came there 
again, he would never leave the State alive; and 
I never heard of the man 's coming back to get the 
beech seal renewed. 

The Kansas people ought to have taken some 
measures to show that they were in earnest, and 
that they were not to be trampled in the dust, 
even if they had to use lead and steel. And I 
say to them now, peace man as I am, that, be- 
fore I would surrender and be driven from the 
Territory, I would use lead and steel, and every 
other metal which God has placed in the earth. 

I know there are doubts expressed whether 
there were votes cast by Missourians in the elec- 
tion. But Noah might just as well have doubted 
whether there had been a deluge when he got up 
on the top of Movmt Ararat. [Laughter.] Just 
look at the returns. As I said before, I am not 
going into this matter at length, because we ex- 
pect information soon upon which we can rely 
confidently. But here is one district which has 
got two hundred and forty-seven voters, and four 
hundred and eighty-six votes; another which has 
four hundred and eighty-.<5ix voters, and one thou- 
sand two hundred and six votes; another which 
has twenty-four voters, and three hundred and 
thirty -one votes. More than five thousand votes 
w^re cast by Missourians in that election, while 
they were driving all the freemen of Kansas from 
their places — compelling them to leave, and for- 
bidding them upon peril of their lives to return. 

There are two Legislatures, and they have sent 
on here two Delegates. We have not decided 
between them; perhaps we never shall. It is our 
business most certainly to do it. Those who 
have resisted it the strongest, have said we have 
the right to do it. If we h?H'e the right to make 
the decision, we have the right, at the same time, 
to make the examination which precedes the de- 
cision; and we are not to be estopped, and blocked 
up, and driven out of the way, because there has 
been a Legislature which has acted wrong. 

I know the same party says we may rely upon 
the court. They trust the court; so do I. I have 
always trusted the court, and believe I always 



shall. I remember a scene which gave peculiar 
strength to that feeling of confidence in the court. 
You remember when the Congressional Library 
was burned, and apparently all the men of the 
city were gathered here to put out the fire. There 
was a score of engines upon the track to the 
reservoir, and perhaps a thousand men in the 
rotunda and its avenues. I saw I could do noth- 
ing there; and as an eminent counsel, then a Sen- 
ator from Vermont, was about to make an argu- 
ment in the Supreme Court, 1 went to that place, 
and there were the court, just as calm as ever I saw 
them in my life. You could hear the clank, clank, 
of a score of engines, and the tramp, tramp, tramp, 
of a thousand men, echoing through tlie room, but 
there they sat, attending to their business, per- 
fectly unmoved. I looked upon that body of men, 
and admired them for their comjjosure in their 
situation. But I thought of another thing. There 
might come the lime when there would be not only 
the agitation of fire and water, but there may be 
political agitation. The political elements may be 
heaving up and showing their power, and then 
that body of men will sit in their places and do their 
duty as calmly as they are doing it now. I will 
trust to that court. 

But I will not put into the hands of this court 
what does not belong to it; and with that Kansas 
election case the court has nothing whatever to do. 
We are to decide it for ourselves, and should do 
so at once frankly and fearlessly. It must be ad- 
mitted that those who attempt to eject the settlers 
from Kansas have some very efficient helps. 

I will read another extract from the President's 
message : 

" In the Territory of Kansas there have been acts preju- 
dicial to good order, but as yet none have occurred under 
circumstances to justify the interposition of tlie Federal 
Executive. That could only be in case of obstruction to< 
Federal law, or of organized resistance to territorial law, 
assuming the character of insurrection ; which, if it should 
occur, it would be my duty promptly to overcome and sup- 
press. 1 cherish the hope, however, that the occurrence 
of any such untoward event will be prevented by the sound 
sense of the people of the Territory, who, by its organic 
law, possessing the right to determine their own domestic 
institutions, are entitled, while deporting themselves peace- 
fully, to the free exercise of that right, and must be pro- 
tscted in the enjoyment of it, without interference on the 
part of the citizens of any of the States. " 

" But long afterwards, when, by the proposed accession 
of the Republic of Texas, the United States were to take 
their next step in territorial greatness, a similar contingency 
occurred, and became the occasion for systematized at- 
tempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of one section 
of the Union, in defiance of their rights as States and of the 
stipulations of the Constitution. These attempts assumed 
a practical direction, in the shape of persevering endeavors, 
by some of the Representatives in both Houses of Congress, 
to deprive the southern States of the supposed benefit of the 



provisions of the act! authorizing the organization of the 
State of Missouri. 

'• It has been matter of painful regret to see States, con- 
spicuous for their services in founding this Republic, and 
equally sharing its advantages, disregard their constitutional 
obligations to it. Although conscious of their inability to 
Ileal admitted and palpable social evils of their own, and 
which arc comiiletely within their jurisdiction, they cnga"e 
in the offensive and hopeless undertaking of reforming the 
domestic institutions of other States wholly beyond their 
control and authority. Jnthe vain pursuit of ends, by them 
entirely unattainable, and which they may not legally at- 
tempt to compass, they peril the very existence of the Con- 
stitution, and all the countless benefits wiljieh it has con- 
ferred. While the people o( the southern States confine 
their attention to theirovvn affairs, not presuniingofficiously 
10 intermeddle with the social institutions of the northern 
States, too many of the inhabitants of the latter are perma- 
nently organized in associations to intlict injury on the 
former, by wrongful acts, which would be cause of war as 
between foreign Powers, and only fail to be such in our 
system, because perpetrated under cover of the Union." 

When I first read that, sir, I thought it would 
turn out an impartial statement of what was 
necessary to be done if there had been an intru- 
sion into that Territory by the freemen as against 
the JVIissourians, or by the Missourians as against 
the freemen. But there is a single expression 
which removes any doubt, and rescues from any 
interpretation which charity might wish to cast 
over it; and that is, the words " domestic institu- 
tions." 

There is another helper of the Missourians. 
Vice President Atchison leaves his high and dig- 
nified place to take part in the low, unmanly bor- 
der scuffles, goading on the men of his State to 
deeds of violence and misrule. The country looks 
on that man as degraded and debauched in his 
principles when he voluntarily swears his pres- 
ence at the Kansas elections, with pi.stol and sti- 
letto, like a political marauder. 

Now, there is another thing which may be 
mentioned, to show the manner in which this 
Legislature was elected, and which removes the 
least shadow of doubt as to its illegality; and 
that is, that it proceeded immediately to legislate 
against freemen, by passing its gag law, its alien- 
sedition law, or whatever else you may call it, to 
muzzle the mouth of every man against uttering 
a sentiment in relation to slavery, by making it a 
penal offense, punishable with five years' impris- 
onment. Now, I do not know how many men 
may subject themselves to that penalty; but I 
can tell you one thing — and I rest my honor and 
name upon it — that if you put a freeman into a 
bastile in Kansas, he will not be there a week 
before there will not be even a key of it left to 
send to Washington. There will not be left one 
stone upon another that will not be thrown down. 

Well, that is not the end of it. Another man 



8 



says — and the course, I believe, is intended, if 
they can carry out and put their plans in exe- 
cution — that he would not put the offenders in 
prison, but would hang them until they are dead, 
dead, dead. It was once said that Foote was a 
hangman and he had that reputation. It was un- 
derstood when a certain gentleman came from a 
certain quarter of the country and went to New 
York, and made a speech there, that he (Foote) 
was in danger of his laurels; and it was shown 
that he was. It now seems that he is surpassed 
by his subalterns. Now, what is the meaning 
of this? Why, that it is put forward here from 
the Senate of the United States, that that is to be 
the law paramount — that Lynch-lawis to go into 
operation — that men who would make assertions 
against slavery would be hung on the spot till they 
arc dead, dead, dead. 

I have shown in what manner these men have 
been treated, and are now treated. But what is 
to bo done ? My proposition in respect to this 
Territory, and to make peace in it, is to admit it 
at once ifito the Union as a State. I am willing 
to allow it to do so. And my reason is very plain 
— and I will be frank about it. It is because it 
will be made a free State. But there is one thing 
to be considered ; those who do not wish it to turn 
out in that way have made a promise to Con- 
gress — have made it to their constituents and 
their States and to the country and to the world. 
What is that promise? The promise is this: 
that whenever the people of the Territory shall 
form a republican government they shall be ad- 
mitted into the Union, either with or without 
slaveiy, as they shall themselves choose. Now 
the people of Kansas have formed a government. 
They have done so of their own choice. They 
have complied in every respect with the requisi- 
tion made. 

Now I say that those men who laid down that 
platform — who established those doctrines — are 
bound to come forward, and recognize, and act 
upon them. I know very well that it will be said 
the Territory has not sufficient population to be 
admitted as a State; but it has a larger population 
than many of the States which have been admit- 
ted into the Union. I have been favored very 
kindly by the chairman of the Committee on 
Territories with a list of those States which have 
been admitted with the smallest amount of pop- 




016 088 Sell"' 



ulation. It is belie'' 
forty-five to fifty tnouoi^ 

read the statement: 

While 
Admitted. population. 

Tennessee.. June 1, 1T96, had by census of 1790, 32,013 

Indiana Dec. 11, 1616, had by census of 1810, 23,890 

LouiMana... April 8, 1812, had by census of 1810, 34,311 
Mississippi. .Dec. 10, 1817, had by census of 1820, 42,176 
Arkansas.. ..June 15, 1836, had by census of 1830, 25,671 

Florida Mar. 3,1345, had by census of 1840, 27,943 

Michigan. ...Jan. 26, 18.37, had by census of 1830, 31,346 

It will be seen by this statement that a large 
number of States, with a population far less than 
Kansas now has, were admitted; so that this 
cannot properly be urged as an objection, and I 
do not know of any other that can be brought 
forward. The people of Kansas have certainly 
proceeded regularly, so far as I know; and I pro- 
pose, therefore, to offer in the House the follow- 
ing resolution: 

Resolved, That the Committee ox the Ter- 
ritories BE instructed TO BRING IN A BILL FOR 
THE IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF KaNSAS AS A StATE, 
WITH THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION THAT SHE 
HAS PRESENTED TO THIS HoUSE. 

If the present controversy goes on, it will grow 
more bitter every day it lasts. I believe that, for 
the peace of that State, of the neighboring States, 
and of the country, Kansas should be made a 
State. Let themhave a State government of their 
own (ihoice. Let them settle down to it, and there 
will be peace. We ought to have peace; we can 
have peace; we must have peace. It will be a 
shame to us to resort to physical violence need- 
lessly. But let one party — either party — let the 
Missourians, or anybody, go and settle down 
there, and fortify themselves with the threat to 
hurl out every man that comes there from a free 
^tate, and the freemen of the country will not 
rest. They will besiege the citadel and scale its 
battlements, no matter how stout may be the fort- 
ress, for freedom has a voice of thunder, and free- 
dom will be heard — not with a still small voice, 
but will be heard in the controversy in the place 
where Gog and Magog go out to battle. Depend 
upon it, if it must come — it may not come soon — 
but if it must come, the voice of freemen will be 
heard and will be heeded; the snorting of their 
horses will be heard from Dan; and the whole land 
will tremble with the neighing of their strong 
ones. 



J 

I 
LiB 



UBBARV OF CONGRESS 



016 088 9615* 



